A letter to my congressional representatives

It was cold and dark when I got up this morning, so the
first thing I did was was turn up the heat and turn on the
lights. That's going to jack up my energy bill for the
month.

Then I drove my son to school. He missed his bus all five
days this week. That's going to jack up my fuel bill for the
month.

Then I dragged myself through another day at work. I don't
function well when I have to get up before dawn.

The people in my family are all diurnal (dI-UR-nal). It
means we sleep when it's dark and wake when it's light. The
problem is that in northern latitudes (like Massachusetts)
the sun rises later in the winter than in the summer.

To compensate for this, we have a scheme called Daylight Savings Time.
Daylight Savings Time shifts our school and work schedules forward in
the summer and back in the winter, to keep them roughly in sync with
the sun. It used to work pretty well, but congress broke it a couple
of years ago: now it goes too long in the fall and starts too early in
the spring.

Most of the damage that congress does affects me at some
remove, but this—this comes right out of my hide. When I'm
stumbling around in the dark for three weeks next spring,
I'll be thinking of you.